When shipping an article or product that is sensitive to impact or movement within a container, various packaging structures may be used to avoid damage to the article by providing spacing between walls of a container and the article, and by holding the article in a preselected position within the container. The use of such packaging structures is useful for transporting articles that may or may not necessarily be regarded as being fragile and for which immobilization during shipment is desirable, such as, for example, cell phones, laptop or notebook computers, handheld electrical devices, books, compact discs (CDs), digital video discs (DVDs), and a variety of other articles. These types of articles also may be subjected to damage in shipment, such as scuffing, dulling or the like, which is caused by movement against and within a container. This form of damage may be caused by gross movement of the product and/or impact with the interior wall of the container, or even by movement wherein the product rubs against a support structure within the container.
Some of the prior art packaging structures are constructed as retention packaging configured to retain an article against a substantially rigid panel that is constructed of corrugated fiberboard or other forms of cardboard, or plastic, by using flexible sheet material, which is held in tension. Other forms of such prior art packaging structures are constructed as suspension packaging that is configured to suspend an article between sheets of flexible material that are held in a position spaced from walls of the container. While such packaging structures may be useful, they may be complex, relatively expensive to assemble, and require substantial amounts of flexible sheet material and corrugated fiberboard or cardboard, or the like. Accordingly, there is a continuing need for improved and low cost packaging structures that provide sufficient protection for an article, while providing ease of use and reduced cost.